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21 comments on “You Just Got Afrika Burned”

The “Quiznos parody” that was actually a commercial, you mean? I know we’ve been through this before, just wanted to reiterate it. I mean, oh look, the QIP Holder LLC spent money to produce a short film mentioning their product that happens to be funny, it’s a parody not meant at all to advertise the product featured in the film! Illogical.

It’s not a commercial if you take out the product placement. For one. You’ve just taken out the entire reason the thing was produced in the first place. There’s simply no reason for QIP Holder LLC to have spent money on this if it hadn’t featured a product placement. Why would they? I mean, you can modify all kinds of media and make them totally different entities. I baffled at how you think that doesn’t change the original intent.

The product placement is irrelevant to the video, just as the Shell Oil product placements in The Ninth Gate are irrelevant to that film. It is NOT part of the original intent; it is only product placement for funding. You can change those 10 seconds to McDonalds, just as you can change the Shell Oil in The Ninth Gate to BP, and the intent of the video is completely the same.

Exactly. The intent is to sell a product. Doesn’t matter what product it is. The filmmakers may have wanted to tell a story, but they fucked it all up when they accepted money from a corporation in exchange for pimping its product in the film. It transformed their parody short into a commercial. Bad move on their part.

Round and round. I’m sure you’re aware that advertising styles have changed over the years, from the straightforward method of the 40s-70s to the more indirect method of the 80s onward. Calvin Klein ads in the 80s where it was just a bunch of artful shots of interiors and great looking people, and only at the very end was there a mention of the product. People flipped out about it back then, but now it’s common. The product as afterthought is a very calculated and intentional form of advertising, meant to lull media savvy people into watching the damn things.

So, take out the mention of Calvin Klein in those 80s ads and you have some artful vignettes. You’ve completely changed the piece, just as you did with the Quiznos ad. Guerilla marketing is still marketing, my friend.

“So, take out the mention of Calvin Klein in those 80s ads and you have some artful vignettes.”

Those “artful vignettes” are selling an image and a lifestyle, even if you cut the brand-name tag. You are left thinking about how you look and how the people in the artful vignettes are dressed, and perhaps how you might look like them.

Where in the Toasty.tv Parody is there any suggestion of eating, let alone of eating subs, or even that people need to eat? Polanski makes more explicit reference to fueling cars in The Ninth Gate, opening the door for the Shell Oil placement.

You are not very good at this, are you? Have you ever taken a class in film appreciation?

The Calvin Klein clips, minus the product mention, stand on their own as some nice soft-core erotica. The Quiznos ad, minus the product mention, stands alone as a funny take on Burning Man. Add product placements in either of them and suddenly they become commercials. Like I said earlier, it was unfortunately move by the filmmakers. Sad.

“Where in the Toasty.tv Parody is there any suggestion of eating, let alone of eating subs, or even that people need to eat?”

Countless commercials running right now whose subject matter has nothing to do with the product being sold aside from the actual mention/placement of the product. Are all of those also not advertisements if you take out the product? You do know that indirect marketing is a common marketing technique, don’t you?

You need to cite examples. There was a car commercial where a group of women went to a “Burning Man” type of event, then decided to do something more normal:
I think ABP found it originally. I posted it in the 10 Reasons thread, but the owner has since taken it private. But it was an example of using the experience of a dirty camp environment, and the contrast, to show the adaptability of the car.

True, there are “replaceable” commercials, where any similar product can be put in, but the overall intent of the video is the same: to get you to buy, using the classic AIDA* model.

But there are also product placements, that have nothing to do with the subject of the video, like having the actor drink from a Coke can, which could have as easily been turned away from the camera, been any brand, or been a glass of water. These do not follow AIDA, and are inconsequential to the video. The Toasty.tv Parody, and The Ninth Gate, are of this variety. The product placement is to get cash from the sponsor.

A video that is a funny parody with or without the product placements, but better without: https://vid.me/0qwe Like The Ninth Gate, it works with or without product placement because it is only product placement; it is not a commercial.

Still waiting for you to provide examples of your common overt commercials, that you claim are the rule, that are not AIDA “commercials” once the product placement is removed like my examples.

Keep in mind what we are looking for: your “commercial” that is no longer a commercial once the product placement is completely removed. This includes any reference to the product or the need for it, or suggestion that it should be purchased. My examples are the Toasty.tv parody, and The Ninth Gate, and my contention is that these are not “commercials,” only product placements that are utterly immaterial to the video.

For those that are not up on Polanski’s The Ninth Gate, here is a bad, free version on YouTube, jumping to the “you’re running low on gas” scene at the end:
(FYI, this online version is missing the finale at the end.)

you don’t need to do this in china. i’ve been going to burningman for the last 15 years and i found that my best friend from college was perfect for providing diversity to our camp. she’s jewish and black lesbian who lost her leg while serving in the iraq war.

she’s the most wonderful soul and everyone loves her, but she won’t otherwise go to burning man because it’s not her thing. so we pay her every year to go out, and that’s opened up so many friendship opportunities. our playa neighbors love us because we’re so inclusive. we modified our art car so she can drive it in her wheel chair and everyone gets to see her.

before all of this, i didn’t think i had enough black friends or lesbian or whatever friends, but now i do. i’ve met so many cool people on the playa this way.

she has a sister who is a lot like her, polio and all that (she’s a lesbian, too). so if any camp is interested in hiring her please let me know: campfirepower2016@yahoo.com